


is a dream a lie if it don't come true

by HeartonFire



Series: take me back to places I feel loved in [4]
Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Campfires, Camping, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Prompt Fill, Singing, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23354539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartonFire/pseuds/HeartonFire
Summary: Karen goes camping with Frank and the Liebermans, and some things come out over a campfire, a few beers, and a Bruce Springsteen song.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Karen Page
Series: take me back to places I feel loved in [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669303
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	is a dream a lie if it don't come true

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted on [tumblr](https://heartonfirewrites.tumblr.com) by the lovely [captain-k-jones](https://captain-k-jones.tumblr.com/).
> 
> The prompt was: Leather jackets, band shirts, a roaring campfire, pitched tents, and a smooth singing voice

"That night we went down to the river…” Frank’s voice carried over the crackling fire, clear and bright as the stars above them. He strummed the slightly out-of-tune guitar gently, and Karen couldn’t help but notice the way his t-shirt stretched around his biceps as he moved.

“Don’t you know anything other than ‘the Boss’?” David said, rolling his eyes at Frank. 

“You want to play instead?” Frank challenged, that familiar stubborn jut to his jaw as he continued strumming.

“No! Please, no!” Sarah cried, pressing a fresh beer into Karen’s hand as she sank down on the chair beside her. 

Frank smirked, and got right back to singing. 

"Now those memories come back to haunt me…” His low voice soothed whatever nerves Karen still had about being here, with these people.

She had only met them earlier in the day, though she had known _of_ them for much longer. David Lieberman was the reason she and Frank had reconnected, the first time, and he had told her all about Sarah, after.

After everything that happened between them, it had been hard enough to get back to whatever tentative something-ship they had forged before, in the hospital room, in the prison, in the courtroom, in the diner, before it all crashed together, then fell apart. They had never been _friends_ , really. There had always been something else there, something deeper, something darker. They were connected, and there was no changing that, even when they pushed each other away, tried to pretend they weren’t.

But once they got past that, once they finally dealt with all their baggage, all their shared history, they were able to be here, wherever here was. Karen knew they were in upstate New York, out in a landscape of mountains and trees that almost reminded her of Vermont. Almost.

Frank almost hadn’t invited her, she knew. He probably wouldn’t have, if Sarah hadn’t intervened. She had demanded Karen’s phone number from David, and told her to ask Frank about his weekend plans. She had sounded too determined for Karen to deny her, and now that she was here, she was glad she hadn’t. They were normal, for all the chaos that had brought them all together, and it was nice to see Frank with friends. They were usually so isolated, in their own little world, it was good to remember there were other people in the world who cared about Frank as much as she did.

However, Karen hadn’t planned for how chilly it already was, the sky growing ever darker above them. She shivered, and Frank stopped playing instantly, standing and leaning the guitar against the nearest tree. Sarah protested, waving her husband away from the instrument, but he just held up a hand.

“Give me a second,” he muttered, rustling in the tent for something. He pulled out his long, leather jacket and draped it over Karen’s shoulders, before settling back into his seat and pulling the guitar over his lap. If there was a flush to his cheeks, it was from the nip in the air. It couldn’t be from anything else. 

“So, Karen,” Sarah said, leaning towards her conspiratorially, as Frank started singing again, “tell me everything.” 

Karen took a long drink from her beer, snuggling into the coat a little deeper. It smelled like woodsmoke and gunpowder, and Frank, and she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be. “What do you mean?”

Sarah’s smile widened. “I mean, how on earth did you get that man,” she nodded towards Frank, “to open up to you?”

“I don’t know about that,” Karen said, scoffing a little. “We just understand each other, that’s all.”

“Listen,” Sarah said, dropping her voice even lower, so Karen could just make out what she was saying over Frank’s singing (and David’s complaints about the song selection). “All I know is, Frank told me I had to find something I cared about, to make it through the time when I thought David was dead.”

“And?” Karen said, feeling the fuzziness of three beers preventing her from putting together exactly which dots Sarah was trying to connect. Sarah had had a few, and it was entirely possible she wasn’t sure what her point was, either.

“And I asked him if he had something to do that for him. You’re his maybe, Karen. You’re it.”

Karen blinked at her, hands going numb. She tightened her grip on her can of beer, to keep it from tumbling out of her grasp, as she looked across the flickering fire at Frank. The aluminum crunched in her grip, the sound echoing like a gunshot through the ringing in her ears. He was still singing, but she saw the furrow in his brow when he noticed her expression. 

Suddenly, the fire, the alcohol, just everything caught up with her, and she needed a break. She stood, stumbling a little as she pushed through the trees towards the small lake they had seen earlier, only the moon lighting her way.

The stars were reflecting in the water, rippling slightly with every breath of wind. Karen was still wearing Frank’s coat, staring out at the dark night sky. 

“Karen?” 

She shivered again, shaking her head.

“Karen?”

She turned to face him, unsure what she even wanted to say.

“What did Sarah say to you?” The edge in his voice told her he was ready to pack up and leave if she was offended, or hurt, and that was enough to nearly make her fall apart.

“Nothing, Frank,” Karen said, clearing her throat. “It doesn’t matter.”

“If it’s putting that look on your face, it does.”

“And what look is that, Frank?” The panic that had raced through her at Sarah’s words was hardening into anger, and it wasn’t Frank’s fault, she knew that, but he was here, and it was a little bit his fault, wasn’t it?

“The look you had in the elevator.” His voice broke. “The look you had in the courtroom, right after I blew my case. The look you had in the hospital, when the kid came in. I know that look, Karen, and it’s always my fault. What did I do? How can I fix it?”

Karen sighed. “There’s nothing to fix, Frank.”

“There has to be.” He reached for her, fingers twitching a little, like he wasn’t sure he was allowed, and when his hand grasped her shoulder, she felt heat radiating down, through every inch of her body. “Let me try. Tell me what happened.”

With his hand on her, with him so close to her, she could feel the heat of his body, all of Karen’s anger, and fear, and grief, began to crumble away.

“Sarah told me something you said to her when she knew you, before.” He nodded, eyes narrowing. “She said, I was your maybe.”

Frank let out a low breath. “If I say she’s right, are you going to walk away?” In the light of the moon, Karen could see the question echoing in the depths of Frank’s dark eyes. “You can, you know. Liebermans’ll bring me home.” He looked down at his feet, scuffing his boot against the loose gravel at the edge of the water.

“I don’t want to walk away, Frank.”

His eyes flashed up to meet hers, a spark of hope lighting in them. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I just, I didn’t know.”

“You knew.” He was almost smiling now, almost teasing. “You’re too smart not to.”

“You could have told me.”

He nodded, shifting closer to her. “Yeah, I probably could have.”

“You going to make it up to me?”

He nodded again, tilting his chin as he considered her. “Think I could do that.”

When their lips met, Karen knew, despite all the pain and frustration they had endured to get here, she wouldn’t have had it any other way. Here, under the deep night sky, away from the world that had tried for so long to tear them apart, was exactly where they were supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this one! I knew I had to get the Liebermans in on this somehow, and here they are! Kudos and comments are so, so appreciated (seriously, they make my day), and my ask box is always open, so feel free to send prompts my way, if you like! <3


End file.
